Flickering Lights
by PixieThomas
Summary: Set at the end of 5x22. The Other Side is crashing down and all they have is their hands bound together. They will get through this, eye connected, hands bound. Together. (Bamon all the way)


**Author's Notes: So this idea has been haunting me since the season finale. I waited before I started writing anything because I sort of thought someone else would write about it. Then it never happened and I love the other stories I really do, but when no one writes your idea, you have to just go and do it. So I in a dumb idea at 1 in the morning of a long, long day, I started this and whipped it up in a few hours. I proofread it and now I'm posting it, even though I know it has so many issues probably, but I hope you enjoy this quick one shot.**

**Disclaimer: There is no copyright infringement meant by this idea or story, I wouldn't have waited this long for Bamon. **

**Please tell me what you think!**

- Flickering -

The look on their faces was the last thing she would see. Bonnie Bennett was leaving them forever and it seemed not a damn thing could be done about it. Somehow, it left Bonnie at a silent peace. They would know this time, they would all know. She may not have said her literal goodbyes but they were at least going to know. She did everything she could. Bonnie Bennett the eternal giver of her life and soul for these people before her. She couldn't have told them anyway, the tears and the agony. She wanted them to be happy, she always did. She wasn't going to leave them without something, yet not everything.

The world came crashing down over her, as the pale blue flash of light brought her back to her reality. The end of her existence is fast approaching. The faces of her friends, and her love all vanished and she knew The Other Side had swallowed her once more, for the last time. Alone. She seemingly always ended up alone with a shred of fear that she wouldn't be able to handle the road before her. Was there even a road to take now? Would it actually be over?

Bright lights stood center ground of the horizon, flickering as if they were sucking things into them. The clustering of trees around her gave her a sense of protection, as she stood just center. Eyes forward and arms at her sides she stood. Bonnie Bennett's mind raced with all sorts of thoughts, and ideas. They didn't matter. Moments, memories flashed before her eyes. How cliché that your life flashes before you…? Not all of it, just specific moments. Her regrets, her missed moments, her happy times, and her bests and worsts.

The chilling breeze was sort of unexpected. It seemed ill fitting that this side crumbling to pieces would be stagnant almost stale. It brought more truth to the position she was in. Shaking her head, shaking away the tears that wanted to well up in her eyes. The sounds of trees crunching, as they broke apart and crashed to the ground with the wind biting at her body enveloped her. She couldn't avoid anything but this moment.

Then he appeared. As handsome as ever though, it didn't make a difference. Strolling up beside her with a swagger that no one should have given the moment. Stopping so close to her without actually touching. His eyes look in the same direction as hers, for nothing in specific as they reflect. The idea, of everything he has actually being over, him being over. Elena, Stefan…. Would that actually be torn from him in this almost melodramatic fashion? Though to be honest he didn't think he wanted to have an outburst. He had a small slice of heaven. He could admit now that it wasn't the whole cake and he wanted the whole cake. Elena wasn't the whole cake, but he peaked in the way Damon knew how.

Putting an end to everything racing in his mind he spoke, though he already knew the answer. "This is going down isn't it?"

His voice had an eerie calm to it.

"It is." She spoke, eyes forward, hurt that her heart raced as she felt Damon walk up to her. Her best friend would be without the man she loved and yet she was content that she wasn't going this alone. "I'm sure there are a million people we both rather be with, right now…" her eyes meeting his for the first time, and possibly the last time. He looks so lost to himself, but not her strangely. His feet are securely planted on the ground beneath them, just as hers are. Her hand moves toward his, and together they move in unison, clasping firmly. "But…"

She doesn't have to say anything else. He understands. They both look down. Taking in the feel of their bodies touching. Physically touching for what seemed like the first time. A glimmer of shock takes both of them as they adjust to the new development. The two of them being together and it feels right.

Together their eyes wander upward until they meet each other again. The wind affecting everything and stinging their eyes, but they couldn't close them at this time. They had to stay focused on each other, because what else were they left with now. The air of romantic couldn't help but waft over them, and in the fear of it all Damon spoke again.

"A couple thousand at most."

A sound came from her, a snort at his ability to face death and still make a cocky joke. She offered a smile; a hesitant smile and he sent one right back. Fear lacing their eyes and their bodies, yet they tried to keep it from reaching their smiles and they failed. Eye connected and silence between them as the chaos reached its eruption point. They felt the end just at the tips of their fingers. Eyes connected and not a tear will fall. They understand and they know.

Eyes connected and not a tear will fall. They are together through this.

Not a tear will fall; they are connected through this.

Eyes forward, they are strong. They are together, in this.

"Do you think it'll hurt?" She hears herself ask. The light gets brighter, shinning down on her face. It emits no warmth, and the wind picks up pushing her hair back from her face. The light begins to wash everything out to where there isn't a shadow or un-light area available.

A moment occurs, a split second of vulnerability created from the light, the ending light. As it feels like it's penetrating through her clothes and into her body, reaching for her sole. She wonders if Damon felt it too and he wonders the same of her. The illumination comes closer, reaching for them, not with hands or a blanket.

"I don't kn-"

His response is cut short, its over. The illumination is over them and nothing can be heard. Everything is canceled out.

Their hands clasped as the world around them blinks in and out. Flickering from black to white, to the world around them and the world they knew once. Loud sounds begin to fade in and out from something of cars crashing together, metal on metal. Bonnie understands the sounds of dried leaves bouncing around due to the wind and screams coming together. Animals begin screaming and it alarms Bonnie because she still can't see a thing. They are both lost in the flickering of lights though blind to actual visuals in this moment. He feels himself tighten his hold on her hand, it's the only piece he has of her in the moment but he knows she's still there.

The flickering stops and they both feel fresh air brushing against their bodies. They still cannot see but they feel the flickering of lights end and yet they don't know what they are left with. Damon realizes he's been panting for air despite his vampirism. Bonnie's breathe is even, she's focusing only on his hand as they float in this point of… wherever they are exactly.

A giant tug comes on Bonnie's legs from a source she can't exactly name. Damon feels the same thing as he is suddenly wrenched from where he was and his grip on Bonnie's hand, the comfort it brought, the relief, is suddenly in threat of being lost. It only takes a few strong forceful tugs before their contact is lost. Bonnie doesn't hear herself screaming but she knows she is and they are pulled into the end, torn apart in their own separate ways.

Together, we will get through this, is the last thought on both of their minds…

- Lights -

Her eyes slammed open with a force she unbeknownst to her. The clothing she wears seemingly restricting her feeling too tight or just clinging to her body. Her chest heaved heavily, as her eyes searched the room for a sign, or a glimmer of understanding. Heart beating wildly, erratic, as a thin sheet of sweat began to sprinkle along her toffee nut skin.

With each passing second everything before cleared from the bright light that was blinding her, though it was only a piece of a visual fast fading. Her limbs felt heavy as she lifted herself into a better-seated position from where she once lay. A wave of nausea almost displaced her as she gripped onto the sheets around her body. Calming down from her high. It was like a high, but of something supernatural and foreign to her existence.

Blinking fast, she looked around her and everything seemed beyond foreign. Turning her head slowly from her right to above her, the pieces began to sink into place. Confused as to how she could forget that. Her eyes landed on the end of the bed. Velveteen like grey fabric that wrapped around the edges, held in place by large brushed nickel nail heads. Moving on to the giant faux fur sheepskin rug that she loved to hate gracing the dark chocolate wood floors. The walls were white, and the delicate trimmings on the wall were an off gray. Nothing much on the walls aside from the large black door with a rococo style knob and the vast expanse of leaded paned glass door and windows on the adjacent wall.

The room was flush with light. The vast windows brought in the morning rays like it was their only mission, and it filled the room to the brim. Not to be confused by an annoying ray of light that dances over your eyes until you are forced to wake up, this light was a calm gentle touch of mother nature to guide you into the new day with a sense of optimism and strength. Nothing really in the way of trinkets or knick-knacks to be seen, yet what decorated the large dresser, beside table, and armoire in the room were very domestic items. A stray necklace with a small pendant, next to a men's family heirloom ring with some keys and such decorated the small table beside her.

Every second brought back a moment and a memory to her that settled down within her, tossing aside the visions that had rocked her to the core and displaced her. She was in bed… yes and she knew this room.

Heartbeat calming, she took a deep breath and shook her head causing her hair to wisp around at the back of her neck. Her dazzling verdant eyes closed with a smile following momentarily as she recalled cutting her hair yesterday. She almost forgot about the big deal it was for her to do so.

Ruffling noises came from next her pulling her from her musings as arms pulled at her waist and moved her across the bed closer to his form. A playful giggle leapt from her mouth as she moved her smooth hands to find her bed hijackers. Not even a moment passed before her hand meet his, and their fingers clasped. Her breath froze, as this felt oddly familiar in a distressingly morbid manner. She couldn't explain why this unfamiliar emotional ground took her in its grasp, but she didn't have long to feel it. A certain someone, still hiding underneath the crisp cream sheets and comforter was on a quest that only his lips could take.

Lulling her with his hands, he eased her back down on the bed with him. Then and only then did he cover her with the warmth of the sheets and his body. His lips meet hers and she couldn't help but smile against them. Prickly feelings of freshly budded facial hair poked at her skin, in a refreshing manner that she always attributed to his morning kisses. Though he did sometimes just ignore the razor for a month or so, and that is always an interesting treat she never thought she'd enjoy.

She isn't sure when her eyes opened searching to see him. She wasn't exactly aware of the sensation that she feels rising up her body as her eyes latch onto his deep oceanic blue eyes, reaching out to her with the dark black lashes rimming them. He looks so amazing fresh to her and yet she knows she's been waking up to him, with him for years. Her heart though, beating underneath her bronzed skin was petrified that it wouldn't be him… that she was in a way alone, without her lasting connection. A connection to what? She couldn't explain, she didn't understand and she didn't care. Bottom line.

His hair was naturally perfect, though slightly messy from bed head, he could wear any look though, specially with the touch of five o'clock shadow barely visible to her on his face with the limited light peaking out from the open sections of bed linen around them. His eyes looked panicked though, and she found a peace in the look he was hiding deep within his eyes. She felt the fast beating of his heart through his chest and where their bodies touched.

There was no way that he was going through what she went through, so she left it at that. She was curious to know, why his disarray made her feel less alone, not even that, connected to him in deep ways that had unfolded for her. She understood the look completely, and yet how, she will never understand.

"Are you alright?" She asked him, wanting to know, badly.

He hesitated a moment before answering. His lips opened and soon he was pulling away from her, lifting himself the bed and rolling bedside her. His face seemed just as puzzled to her as when she woke up.

"Just a bad dream. A crazy, hell of a ride, bad dream." He answered, as if trying to recall the vanishing collection of memories.

That was alarming, because she could only say the same thing. What else could you call it?

"Same." She moved herself back into a seated position on the bed, looking over him. "The craziest stuff I've ever seen. You were even there, but it wasn't the same. Magic, vampires, doppelgangers, and witches… It was so terrible teenager love series. We died, at the end. "

"Alright are you in my head, because that sounds like my dream. Or nightmare, you weren't around much." He flashed her a dazzling smile and she greedily took it into her memory banks, nibbling on her lower lip. He reached out and touched her cheek, she immediately moved into his palm nuzzling him.

This feeling so alien to him, and yet so tacit; her love and devotion for him. That other life, that other place, that wasn't their life. That wasn't their paradise. That was something so outlandish of an idea. He couldn't explain it, but she seemed so new to him. Since he woke up, she was as new to him as a newborn or a plant sprouting up from a seed. The idea of her being his always there, so hidden an intention and yet without the nurturing. He has her though, and as he moves himself into a place where the dream was just a dream, he can't help but wonder about what it was before him.

"You… You are my paradise. Damon, I love you." She whispered as she looked at him. Something was so different about their known world right now, that she needed him to know that.

"Miss Soon to be Bonnie Salvatore-Bennett, I have almost always loved you," with it said he swiftly moved over her, hoping to stake claim over a certain area in particular. Her definitive pleading for getting up and getting on with their day going ignored, not that she was really going to take the time to care. Both of them brushing aside the last few fragmented pieces of a dream that both of them were haunted by, before opening their eyes to their life once more.

Here, she was just a lone child of her single mother, Abby Bennett; with constant aide from her Grandmother Sheila a wonderful women with some interesting drunk moments. Though her Grams had just passed away, she left her more then she could have ever asked for, from her will and left knowledge of the world. Her father died when she was young, but she kept dear the photos that she still had of them together. She had two best friends in the world, that she had known since they were little kids. She started singing at the local Grille on Thursday nights, because she could, and everyone was always saying she had a voice. She was just a small town girl at heart, not in mind, because she wanted to see the world. Bonnie is freshly engaged to the love of her life.

Though the biggest point in her life is that she feels like she has been taken care of, like since birth she was looked after.

- Fin -

**A.N.: So, there it is. Ummm, I really wanted to go route of alternate universe but I wanted this to be a one shot and I didn't want to dive into it. In the end of this, they end up together. I have thought about doing a second chapter to maybe talk about how the other group would find them, but right now I just want to post this and get back to my life. Ha ha, please review and tell me what you think. I fear this is a terrible idea brought on by sleep deprivation. **


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